Computer network communication “sessions” between two, or more, separate endpoints, respectively identified by network addresses, are known. A “session,” as that term is used herein, defines at least some of the resource(s) associated with a particular user. Sharing the resources of one user to another user is conventionally accomplished by co-browsing or by other ways of continuous synching (for example, repetitive logging of events). One popular example of a communication session is a TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/internet protocol) session. In a TCP/IP session, a session provides reliable, ordered, error-checked delivery of a stream of octets between network-connected endpoints. As a further example, some communication sessions between endpoints instead use the connectionless User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which emphasizes low-overhead operation and reduced latency rather than error checking and delivery validation. There are still other existing protocols for creating a session, and it is quite possible that still more protocols will be developed in the future. Despite the differences among various types of sessions, in a computer network communication system, once the session is established and active, each endpoint that receives a communication (such as a set of data packets) will “know” which endpoint sent the communication. For example, if only a first endpoint and second endpoint mutually establish a communication session between them, then, so long as the session remains active, the first endpoint will know that communications received through the session are from the second endpoint, and the identity of the second endpoint does not need to be re-determined (for example, re-authenticated) for every communication received in the context of the active and on-going session.
A financial transaction is an exchange of money or some other financial asset for something else of value, such as information, goods, services, or money. A financial transaction involves at least two parties: a payer, who gives up the financial asset, and a payee, who receives it. The parts of a financial transaction need not occur simultaneously. For example, money could be given at one time, and the goods given in return at another. A financial transaction could also include the giving of a gift, where the thing of value received in exchange for the financial asset given is the intangible benefit to the payer of the act itself or the results it does or is expected to produce.
A payer in a financial transaction may also be a payee in the same transaction. This is the case, for instance, when an individual moves money from one bank account to another. A payer or payee may be a natural person or any other legal entity.
In the context of a payment transaction, “commitment” is when a payer party has been effectively informed that she is legally bound to make a payment (regardless of whether the party is bound, in fact and law, under the contract law of her jurisdiction(s)). This occurs when handing cash to a cashier, signing a credit card payment receipt, or when clicking a button to confirm a purchase placed on an e-commerce website.
As used herein, the relatively broad concept of “consummation” of a payment transaction includes the following types: (i) legally binding consummation (or, “being legally bound”), which status begins at the point(s) in time at which the payer(s) are legally bound to pay (whether they realize it or not); (ii) commitment consummation, which status begins at the point(s) in time at which the payer(s) are sufficiently notified that they are bound to pay such that a reasonable person in the payer's circumstances would consider herself bound to pay; (iii) execution type consummation, which status begins at the point(s) in time at which money, or other consideration, is actually transferred from effective possession of the payer(s) to effective possession of the payee(s); and (iv) completed-transaction-notification type consummation, which status begins at the point(s) in time at which the payer(s) are reasonably considered to have been notified that their money, or other consideration, has been transferred out of their effective possession. These types of consummation may, or may not, occur within seconds of each other (for example, substantially at the same time), and these types of consummation may overlap—they are not mutually exclusive ways of describing consummation status in a given payment transaction.
Execution, for its part, can be broken down into various sub-types including: (i) pending execution, which refers to status after execution has been requested of the parties who are actually effecting the transfer of money, but before execution is resolved; and (ii) resolved execution, which refers to the status after the point(s) in time at which the funds are transferred (or transfer is denied, for example, for insufficient credit in a credit card account). In many cases, pending execution will last a very, very short time because systems (for example, electronic payment systems) take a very short time to respond to a request that funds be transferred from a payer to a payee.